1913 Frontier Days Gasoline Events

 

It was only 10 years after the first automobile, a 1903 “Curved-Dash” Oldsmobile from Jerome, which actually only drove from Jerome Junction after taking the train there.

Still, “much interest [was] created” when the Frontier Days Committee announced that it was increasing the cash prize money for the automobile race to $250 for first, and $150 for second place (approximately $8000 and $4800 in today’s money). The Weekly Journal-Miner explained that the extra prize money would ‘guarantee the entry of at least two cars from Tucson, two cars from Phoenix, and one car from Jerome,  to race against a lone entry from Prescott.

The Snow-Mageddon of '67!

Consensus knows that Prescott gets snow, but it seldom lasts long—often melting away before evening. This was the reasoning behind the city selling off its “excess” snow removal equipment. But then in mid-December 1967, a below-freezing cold-snap accompanied by four waves of heavy snow eventually produced 72 inches with drifts measuring up to 10 feet. 

Ironically, it was the city of Phoenix that sent ten snowplows, at its own expense, to help with the crisis.

1922: Prescott Turns the Page on the Old West

From its beginning and for the better part of a century, Prescott desired to be a modern city in stark contrast to the surrounding wilderness. Come 1922, people had grown weary of streets that were either dusty or muddy, and the desire was strong to dust off Prescott’s cowtown image and replace it with a modern, 20th-century city. As a result, 1922 would see the biggest infrastructure improvements the city would ever experience, as well as Prescott’s first big growth spurt.

The Senator Highway

There was a time when Senator Highway was being considered as a part of the north-south territorial highway, connecting Prescott to Phoenix, but it would never make it.

The Intriguing Story of Cathedral Cave

Dud Clark had been contracted to build a road from Prescott to Ash Fork when Lee Burhans called out to him. “Burhans was a member of a picnic party and was going through a large cave that had been well known for years, when he found a small opening that he had never before perceived,” the paper described. Peering through the hole with a match, he noticed that this opening was just below the roof of a large cavity. Lee got Dud, who then lowered a rope and descended to the cave floor with an “automobile lamp.” When he turned it on, his jaw went slack.

Prescott 1933: A Story in Pictures

Gurley Street, 1933

It was the poorest of times. It was the richest of times. Despite being in the depths of the Great Depression, Prescott would rise above its trials.

Here now are 24 more images that will give the reader a taste of what it was like to live in Prescott in 1933...

1921-23: Downtown Prescott Becomes Modernized

“Yesterdays in Prescott are memorable for their mud, their amiable let-it-alone [attitude] and their slow fight to weld public opinion into a lever,” the paper editorialized in 1922. “Tomorrow, Prescott will be a city, beautifully located, clean, sightly, and well cared for. Today, Prescott is in its period of transition. 

“By fall, at least, this city will have been transformed. No longer will its charm consist only of the scenic setting, the beauty of its women, and the open-hearted hospitality of its citizens. It will have the city touch.” 

The Hohokam Village Under the Cordes Junction Interchange

Each day, over 40,000 vehicles pass through the Cordes Junction interchange connecting I-17 with Arizona Highway 69. Few are aware that they are passing over an ancient, northern village of the Hohokam people.

Anytime the Arizona Department of Transportation prepares to build, they are required to investigate the area “for the potential to encounter cultural resources (including) prehistoric archeological sites.” When ADOT looked to expand the Cordes Junction interchange in the later portions of the first decade of the 2000s, they found an ancient Hohokam village surprisingly full of artifacts.

Congress Hotel Fire Changed Prescott

The Congress Hotel was located on Gurley St.
on the western lot of today's Hassayampa Inn.

It was just before 3 am, July 12, 1923. EA Chase, a guest at the Congress Hotel, was awakened by a woman screaming, “Fire!” As soon as he raised up, he noticed his room was quickly filling with smoke. When he placed his feet on the floor, his heart filled with trepidation as it had already grown sizzling hot...

A nursemaid caring for the grandson of US Senator Henry Ashurst panicked when she saw the flames and left the building without the 1-year-old child...

Unfortunately, the city’s fire siren was out of order. Someone fired three pistol shots into the air to try to attract attention, but it would be 10 minutes before the fire department finally arrived at the scene...

Tom Mix Helps Start the Northern Arizona Fair

In 1913, the Arizona State Legislature allowed for counties to use a certain amount of property tax dollars “for the support and furtherance of county fairs and exhibitions.” For the northern counties, it was felt that more money could be raised and result in a better fair if they could pool their resources and stage the event together. “This was agreed upon, and the Northern Arizona Fair Association came into being (with) bylaws formally adopted on August 7.”

However, the prime mover in helping to bring the fair together was the western silent movie star Tom Mix. Prescott was a second hometown for Mix, who produced scores of films around the Granite Dells area. He was named “Program Chairman and, through his efforts, raised $6000 (over $150,000 today) to put on the fair. He planned and staged a Wild West show using local cowboys” to help raise the money.

The effort turned out to be more popular and successful than the planners could have dreamed.

Horsethief Basin: Heart of a Rustlin' Racket

The first use of the name “Horsethief Basin” in an Arizona newspaper was on November 1st, 1911, but its history as the heart of a criminal syndicate stretched back 30 years prior.

In the end, the illegal activities there would continue for decades until a road to the site was finally built. 

The History of Palace Station

Palace Station, located 17 miles south of Prescott, is one of the most famous stage stops in Yavapai County. Having been built in 1875, its history is long, and its future is bright. 

“Palace Station is one of the few remaining stagecoach stations dating from the settlement of the Arizona Territory. The station played an important role in the social and economic development of the new territory and is now…on the National Register of Historic Places.”

The Story Behind Prescott's Street Cars UPDATED!

"Today, May 19, 1903," the newspaper proclaimed, "will mark the beginning of a new era in the industrial progress of the city of Prescott." That day saw "the beginning of work on the first electric street railway in northern Arizona, and Prescott now takes her place among the up-to-date cities of the west."

It was this level of excitement that announced the mundane arrival of the first railroad ties for the Prescott and Mt. Union Railway Company.

Yavapai Co's Astounding Agriculture: 1912

Those unfamiliar with the agricultural past of Yavapai County are sure to be astonished by the variety and success of the crops. Almost anything imaginable was planted, and most did well--for a time.

1912 was a healthy year for both rain and crops with several varieties reaching mammoth proportions...

The Invasion of the Horseless Carriage!

It was 1903 when the first automobile drove into Prescott, and before the year was over, the city fell in love with the new contraption!

Well, mostly...

Still, these "machines," as they were often called, would begin to infiltrate every aspect of life in Prescott.

1903: First Automobile Drives Into Prescott

The first automobile to drive into Prescott was a brand new 1903 "Curved Dash" Oldsmobile, which was also the first car ever to be mass produced. It was the evening of February 26, 1903, and the welcoming of this new invention brought a surprising amount of civic pride to the city.

Cowboy Escapades #2: Autos on the Range

When automobiles were new inventions, it was inevitable that at least some cowboys would decide to try to replace their horses with cars in cow-punching chores.

Indeed, at least twice it was suggested to start using autos in traditional events during the Frontier Days rodeo!

Highway 79 (89A): the Prescott to Jerome "Shortline"

When it first opened on August 1st, 1920, it was declared "Yavapai's Greatest Attraction." (*1)

"Members of the National Geographic Society...proclaimed [Highway 79] as 'the most beautiful drive in America.'" (*2)

To cynics (and the carsick), the curvy, mountain road might seem to have been designed by a carnival-ride engineer, a drunk, or both. In fact, Highway 79 would be considered an engineering marvel even by today's standards. It cut the travel time and distance between the two cities nearly in half.

While some history is buried under the sands of time, Highway 79 was eventually buried under a ribbon of asphalt and given a new number: 89A. Still, the twists and turns of this roadway only mirror the odyssey taken to construct it.

1956: Teen Delinquents Beat Blind Man; Murder a Veteran

The headline in the paper spoke to the shock of the city: 

"TEENS HELD IN PRESCOTT GANG DEATH."

It began as seven males were drinking at the Prescott Cafe. Three of the males, two 17-year-olds and one 18-year-old, were members of a rebel teen gang. (*1)

Perhaps they desired a change of scenery; perhaps they were asked to leave, but all seven decided to drive together to Phoenix. However, just south of Mayer, the car suffered a flat tire. (*2)

The three gang members decided to take the opportunity to rob the four other men. Soon, a 50-year-old former patient at the Whipple VA lay dead in a pool of his own blood. A second, blind man was in the County Hospital suffering from serious injuries, including a possible fractured skull. (*1)

In a rare move for the day, Yavapai County Attorney Jack Ogg would seek to try the three teens, Joe Mungia and Joe Rudy Daniels, each 17, and Earl Padilla, 18, as adults. (*3)

POTUS Visits Prescott, Statehood at Stake

The POTUS (President of the United States), William Howard Taft

It was 5:51pm, October 13th, 1909.

President Taft's special train was "drawn by two engines looking as proud as shining machines of brass and steel can look."  As the train pulled into the Prescott depot,  "there was tremendous cheering while the band up the street vigorously played 'Hail to the Chief.'"

Prescott planned long and hard to make it the perfect visit, and the Queen City of Arizona accomplished just that.